![\"Donovan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Donovan-Scottish-folk-pop-singer-1965-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Alamy)<\/p>\n
Sun 22 February 2026 23:00, UK <\/p>\n
The Scottish folk-rock hero Donovan<\/a> isn\u2019t necessarily a guy you\u2019d associate with Nigel Tufnel from Spinal Tap, but when it came to getting the sound he wanted on the song that would become one of his most enduring hits, there was a definite overlap in philosophies.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember the bass line going down and [producer] Mickie Most saying, \u2018We\u2019ve got a problem\u2019,\u201d Donovan recalled in a 2005 interview with Mojo, speaking about the recording of his 1966 psych-rock anthem \u2018Season of the Witch\u2019.<\/p>\n He added, \u201cThe engineers were saying that they couldn\u2019t turn the bass up. I said, \u2018Why?\u2019 They said, \u2018Well, it\u2019s going into the red\u2019. And so Mickie said to the engineers, \u2018Look, you go into the red, I\u2019m giving you permission. Go in the red! That\u2019s the bass sound I want. Very, very loud!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Donovan and his producer won the debate, and one key component of the mesmerising and highly influential \u2018Season of the Witch\u2019 was in place. <\/p>\n A classic slow-builder with an epic chorus, the track was the confluence of a lot of new ideas Donovan had absorbed in the months leading up to the sessions for his third studio album, Sunshine Superman. Musically, this included new frontiers in his guitar playing and songwriting, inspired by new friends from the emerging English folk-rock scene, such as Bert Jansch<\/a> and John Renbourn. The latter was credited with introducing him to a D ninth chord, which became the foundation for the instantly captivating and eerie feeling of \u2018Season of the Witch\u2019. <\/p>\n Wisely, he decided to try and pair that vibe with a matching lyric about the rising paranoia of the mid-1960s, including the proliferation of both drug dealers and drug busts. Donovan himself would famously be a part of Scotland Yard\u2019s early crackdown on pot-smoking rock \u2018n\u2019 rollers when he was arrested for possession just weeks after recording this song.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I look over my shoulder,\u201d he sings on the track, \u201cWhat do you think I see? \/ Some other cat lookin\u2019 over his shoulder at me \/ And he\u2019s strange, sure is strange\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a feeling, even then, that all was not perfect in the Garden of Eden,\u201d he told Mojo in 2011, \u201cDealers were moving into bohemia and hard drugs were on the fringes. The song was also prophetic. It was about the bust, although of course I couldn\u2019t know that then.\u201d<\/p>\n To get the feeling they wanted on the song, Donovan and collaborator Shawn Phillips brought in a collection of session players and local club musicians to flesh out the sound. It\u2019s long been speculated that a pre-Zeppelin Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, who were known to have recorded with Donovan on other occasions, might have been among those players, although no one seems to be quite sure, oddly enough.<\/p>\n